It’s not all fun and games for Belgian garage duo The Black Box Revelation. The two-piece is having a busy summer so far, driving through Europe to perform at a string of festivals. We caught Jan and Dries between two pit stops and had a chat about life on the road.

Jan: In a sweaty van. Our driver Didier is a bit crazy… He’s a party provider and quite famous in the tour managing world. Right now he’s also managing Black Mountain and Bear In Heaven.

Dries: But he prefers us.

Have you ever had any brushes with the law whilst on the road?

Jan: No, we’re good boys. We’ve been touring for two years now so we would have already had issues if it weren’t the case. But maybe in a few years if we start getting bored we’ll do drugs and get arrested.

Did you ever get in a fight with another band?

Dries: No, but this French band that supported us in France one month ago really pissed me off. They were playing before us and tuned my drum kit way too high. I didn’t notice it but fortunately our driver tuned it down again. It was sabotage. What a bunch of little fuckers.

Jan: Yeah that tour was funny because after the shows they would always bring the ugliest girls backstage. Jesse’s girlfriend was on tour with us and she was the one picking the girls, making sure they were as unattractive as possible. The guys usually only stayed for half an hour and then went to their bus so we always got stuck with them…

What’s the one item you can’t tour without?

Jan: I pack a pair of black skinny pants and that’s it, I’ll wear it during the entire tour and never change.

Dries: Cigarettes.

Do you collect stuff on the road?

Jan: We try to send postcards from every city. I like the way they travel in time. By the time they’re sent out, we’re not in that city anymore.

Any particularly rough touring anecdotes?

Jan: Touring England was pretty rough. The conditions were pretty basic, especially after Belgium where we got used to being treated like kings. Not like Napoleon, but little kings of our little kingdom.

Is there a song you ever get tired of playing?

Jan: Not really, whenever we’re fed up with one song, we don’t do it anymore. We just want to play our best songs live.

Which is your favourite to play right now?

Jan: Here Comes The Kick.

It’s really good; I think the entire album should sound like that.

Jan: Actually our next record will be like that, that’s why it’s the last track of the album. We have another song which we recorded at the same time but wasn’t on Silver Threats. It also has a bit of a psychedelic up build and satanic vibe, so I think we’re going to release it in February for Valentine’s day. It seems like the perfect timing to me.

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